UK govt to launch Shs175b climate smart jobs project
Investing in environmentally friendly technology is an ongoing initiative that Ugandans must take interest to create sustainable investments. Photo | file
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The project will provide a full-time resource centre to secure global investment from both the public and private sector, which as a result, will ensure that Uganda gets a share of the $100m climate financing that has been availed to African countries.
The UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office has said it will soon launch a Shs175b project that seek to enhance creation of climate smart jobs in Uganda.
Speaking at the end of the two-day sixth Economic Growth Forum in Kampala at the weekend, Mr Philip Smith, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office country director, said Uganda has been a pioneer for the Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance, through which the UK government has been supporting government to establish a Climate Finance Unit within the Ministry of Finance.
The unit, he said, will provide a full-time resource centre to secure global investment from both the public and private sector, which as a result, would ensure that Uganda gets a share of the $100m climate financing that has been availed to African countries.
“UK is firmly committed to green growth and has recently reaffirmed its commitment to mutually beneficial investment through British Investment Partnerships, which bring together a range of UK investment vehicles,” he said, noting that the partnership demonstrate UK’s commitment to build stronger, more transparent economic partnership-based on high investment, technical expertise, and the ability to mobilise private finance without adding to the debt burden.
Since 2015, Mr Smith said, through the Northern Uganda: Transforming the Economy through Climate Smart Agribusiness programme, has raised incomes of 170 thousand households in northern Uganda by 15 percent and enabled 2.2 million people to adapt to climate change in the region.
Mr Smith also noted that together with the International Growth Centre, which is majority funded by the UK, in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Uganda, has been organising the Economic Growth Forum to inform budget preparation over the last five years.
